MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Italy's Rubens Barrichello gave teammate Michael Schumacher a chance to experience being No. 2.

Barrichello upstaged Ferrari teammate Schumacher, setting a track record in qualifying Saturday for the Australian Grand Prix, the opening event of the Formula One season.

Barrichello took the pole with a fast lap of 1 minute, 25.843 seconds at the 3.295-mile Albert Park circuit, beating the two-time defending race winner and four-time F1 champion by five-thousandths of a second.

"It's a tough life just to be No. 2 to Michael," Barrichello said. "This year, I'm not going to bother complaining any more and I'll stop crying - if that's what I've been doing - and just get on with the job, enjoy, remember why I do this. It's because I love it."

Schumacher, who had led all four rounds of practice, held the top spot in qualifying briefly with a run of 1:25.848 on his fifth lap. The German star will begin pursuit of a record-tying fifth F1 title from the second spot on the grid Sunday.

"We've always said we don't have a preference," Ferrari boss Ross Brawn said of the Barrichello's run. "He's been doing well this weekend. Let's hope that continues."

The Ferrari drivers were using 2001 cars because the team was not happy with the 2002 packages during testing. But the older cars still had an edge on the latest technology of major rivals Williams-BMW and McLaren-Mercedes during a rain-interrupted session.

"It wasn't a mistake to bring the old cars," Barrichello said. "We improved the car to my liking since the last race of last season - I feel very comfortable.

"It's the perfect start to the year. It's good to be in pole. But it was only two runs and then it rained ... we know our cars are competitive, so if Michael had gone faster, I might have gone faster, too."

Schumacher's brother, Ralf, claimed the third staring spot in a Williams. But he was far off the pace, posting a best lap .436 seconds slower than that of Barrichello.

"We thought that we were going to be closer," Ralf Schumacher said. "We only really had one run, so there's more to come. I hope it's enough to satisfy a podium finish."

McLaren's David Coulthard, the race winner in 1997 and runner-up in 1998 and last year, qualified third despite an early spinout. After a pit stop, he recovered to post a time of 1:26.446.

His teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, replacing the retired two-time series champion Mika Hakkinen, was fifth. Next came 2001 rookie of the year Juan Pablo Montoya in the other Williams.

Jarno Trulli was seventh in a Renault, followed by the Jordan-Honda of Giancarlo Fisichella. Sauber-Petronas teammates Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld completed the top 10 for the first of 17 races.

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